Nothing has done more to cause climate change than burning coal. To survive we have to stop burning it!
In the UK, in Europe, in China and the US, more coal fired power stations are planned. No amount of nonsense about carbon trading or ‘clean coal’ is going to get around the simple truth: emissions from coal are rising and those emissions are wrecking the atmosphere.
So we’ve got a choice. We can take responsibility for how we run our society, embrace change and innovation, and florish in a low-carbon future. Or we can carry on burning coal, wipe out half the species on the planet, condemn billions of people to needless suffering, and lose our only chance for change.
We owe coal a lot - Coal has powered history. But it’s been over two hundred years, and we’ve figured out how to do things better. The next revolution will bring about a fairer, cleaner society - powered by renewable energy – where people are put above profit.
Why now?
Carbon emissions have been steadily growing in Britain since the industrial revolution. (Except the recent decrease caused by exporting manufacturing to China.) Yet, if we don’t turn around our emissions now – so that they start to get smaller - climate change will spiral out of control well within our lifetimes.
Small personal steps and letters to MPs are worthwhile, but they’re obviously not enough, because things aren’t changing – the government is still planning new coal power stations, which is a total no-brainer bad idea when it comes to the climate
Our politicians and the political systems we have are failing us. There’s too much big-industry money, too much fear of change, too much political capital tied up in the carbon economy to make lobbying MP’s enough to meet a challenge of this magnitude.
Why us?
Apartheid didn’t collapse, people got together and struggled, and sang, and persisted. Women weren’t given the vote, they joined with each other and made universal suffrage essential. And so it goes. It’s a well-worn argument, but that doesn’t make it less right. Most of the freedoms we enjoy today have been won by people stepping out of line to make the world a better place by taking back power. And this means confronting the powerful who wish to preserve the status quo.
Climate change won’t just go away until we, that’s you and me, get together and create moments of resistance and celebration that break through this grey, complacent slide towards catastrophe.
Are you ready for some action?
The more people that get involved the more chance we have at stopping climate change, so send this link to all your friends.
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